Dark Side of Sunset Pointe Street Team

They Still Call Me Sister Street Team

Tricia O'Malley

Sacrifice

Marilyn Holdsworth

Friday, January 3, 2014

) Like most writers, I imagine there sometimes comes a point when you decide that a particular story just isn’t coming together right. How do you deal with those situations?

A) I’m currently working on revamping an older book I wrote in the LeGarde Mystery series, called Virtuoso. Although I think the plot is fine, the writing is a little stale and in my “older” style before I hit my current skill level. So I’m rewriting the whole thing. It’s going slowly and I’m not enjoying it. But I keep plugging away at it and it will eventually be done.

Q) Do you have a drawer full of half-written MS or topic ideas or notes for characters you’d like to write about some day?

A) I have one file called “ideas for books” that has one-liners about potential plots and plot twists – that’s it. Everything else has come full fruition into a novel. I usually start a book right away when the ideas hit me – and I can’t stop until the novel is completed.

Q) Is it easy for you to keep the plot of one series from impinging on your planning for another?

A) It’s not too hard – my characters are close to my heart and pretty real to me. So they stay unique and distinctly differentiated in my head.

General

Q) Favorite book?

A) To Kill a Mockingbird

Q) Favorite movie?

A) I can’t pick one! Can I cheat and give you my list of favorites? Murdoch Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, To Kill a Mockingbird, Shining Through, Regarding Henry, Sense and Sensibility, Forever Young, The Game, Big, The English Patient, Frequency, Corrina, Corrina, The Family Man, Dragonfly, While You Were Sleeping, The Green Mile, Witness, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Majestic, Nell, As Good As It Gets, The Birdcage, Don Juan de Marco, The Station Agent, The Human Stain, Remains of the Day, Pride & Prejudice, Under the Tuscan Sun, The American President, Fried Green Tomatoes, Bridges of Madison County, Sound of Music, The Secret Life of Bees

Q) Favorite band?

A) I have always loved the bands of my youth – The Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, Jeff Beck and others of that era. But I also love Ella Fitzgerald, Chopin, and Puccini. ;o)

Q) If you could travel in a Time Machine would you go back to the past or into the future?

A) I would go back to the 1950s to try to befriend Mr. John D. MacDonald, my favorite author of all time. His Travis McGee series are the best. I’d love to see if some of his incredible talent would rub off on me or if he’d read my manuscripts! He’s still my hero after all these years, as much as I love the writing of Dean Koontz, Laurie R. King, and Michael Prescott.